Friday, June 30, 2006

Busy has not only been my middle name this week, but it has also been my first and last too!! Work has been H-E-C-T-I-C!!! So much so that by the time I got home, I just ceased to exist. I apologize for my neglect here. I can't believe it's 4th of July time already!! This has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love family, friends, cookouts, fireworks, and swimming. I LOVE the summer holidays. While I love all of the excitement, I'm all too aware that 2 of my dogs absolutely DO NOT!!! Shiloh and Fergie are both TERRIFIED of fireworks and big crowds. So, I make sure that I leave them indoors, where they are the most comfortable. I make sure that I let them out before the fireworks start. I don't let them out again, until I hear mostly no sign of them in the neighborhood. The American Humane Association, Humane Society of the United States, and the ASPCA all remind pet owners to keep their pets safe during the 4th of July weekend. Here is the ASPCA's list of tips to keep your pooches and kitties happy this weekend:

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

I apologize for my absence yesterday. It has been REALLY crazy for me lately. I hope that I'll be back to normal soon. In the meantime, I thought that I'd share something completely different with everyone today. Last weekend, some of my friends in the 501st Legion went to a Sci-Fi convention (AdCon) in Knoxville. Although I didn't get to go myself, I'm really enjoying everyone's stories and pictures. One of the guests there was Ray Park. Ray Park is a respected martial artist, who is probably best known for his role as Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I got the opportunity to meet him last year at DragonCon in Atlanta. He is really a super guy; very nice. He loves to meet his fans and talk with them. During one of the sessions, he took a few fans and recreated the awesome lightsaber duel between Darth Maul, Obi Wan Kenobi, and Qui Gon Gin. One of the members of the 501st caught it on film and posted it to YouTube.com. Here are the results. I love martial arts, so I think they're awesome!!

Frazier's ever famous Jack Russell, Eddie, passed away at the home of his trainer last Thursday. The dog's real name was Moose. Moose was 16 years old and apparently quite the character. In addition to his role as Eddie, Moose also appeared in the movie My Dog Skip, which I highly recommend (be sure to bring the box of tissues). Goodbye Moose, you will be missed. For more, click HERE.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Today has been one of those days that I didn't know whether I've been coming or going. Some people would say, I have too many "irons in the fire" today. I have somewhat of a personal project that I'm working on that I'm not a liberty to talk about quite yet. Hopefully by next week, I can let everyone in on all the details. Don't worry. It's nothing huge, life changing, or bad. It's just something that I'm interested in doing, and I'm trying to make it happen. Until I have everything nailed down, I don't want to say anything.
Casey and I want to go to the drive in tonight, but we'll have to see how the weather holds out. It's been raining here, and that's o.k. It's been really dry, but the rain doesn't make for a good movie experience.
Other than my appointment at the local paper on Monday, I don't really have any other big plans this weekend. That's subject to change on a moment's notice, though. Everyone have a great weekend!

Friday, June 23, 2006

A few days ago, I was contacted by one of my hometown newspaper's (Shelbyville Times-Gazette) reporters, John Carney. He is interested in doing a story on our small town's local bloggers. I quickly accepted his invitation. So Monday, I get to go to the paper and meet with him. It will be interesting to hear his thoughts on our local bloggers. I'm excited and a bit nervous at the same time. This blog is like my baby. As you all know, I use it as a way to educate and inform readers of homeless animals, pet related issues, and my life in general with my menagerie of pets. I've put a lot of my heart and soul into this place, and I'm a little nervous at the thought of such open exposure. It's so strange. It's not like I haven't had exposure before. Brittney over at Nashville's Talking has picked up several of my posts before. It's been wonderful. I've connected with so many people, right from my own area. There's a certain amount of safety being grouped with Nashville area bloggers. When it gets down to such a tight, small town demographic, it gets the nerves all a jitter. Has anyone had experience with this before? Any pointers? I'll keep everyone posted.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Click HERE to hear the theme song!
Tomorrow, June 23, is National Take Your Dog to Work Day. Take Your Dog to Work Day was started by Pet Sitters International back in 1999. Here's what the day is all about:

Now if you're like me and it's not practical to actually take your dog to work, there are other things you can do to help promote the occassion. Pet Sitters International lists 10 things you can do on this day to help, whether or not your favorite companion goes with you.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Happy Summer Solstice!! Ah, the first day of summer. I wait for this day all year long. I don't have anything against the other seasons, but summer has ALWAYS been my favorite. I love the fact that we have more daylight hours today than any other day. I just love having lots of daylight, after I get home from work. I like going to work in the sunshine and coming home in the sunshine. I love taking the dogs out at nearly 9 p.m. and having a little light left. I just feel that I have more "me" time in the summer. All winter long, I wait for the first day of spring and warmer weather. In the winter, I feel like a prisoner, and summer is freedom. I LOVE to be outside. Most afternoons, you can find me out at the pool swimming my laps, or out walking the dogs, or just out on the porch visiting with my mother. Once I get off from work, it's very hard for me to stay inside. I just NEED that good dose of fresh air and sunshine everyday. So if you guys need me, I'll be outside.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

I have volunteered my time to animal humane activities and causes, since I was in high school. For some reason, I missed one of the newest things going. It's the movement to use oral contraceptives and implants as a method of sterilaztion for pets. This could be much cheaper than surgically spaying and neutering pets. There is an organization that is spearheading the research and ideas in this area. It is called The Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs. Here is what they do:

I think this is a really good idea. It's definitely something that I'd like to research. I'm sure that it will take a while to get all of the details worked out, but the end means could be a great thing. I did sign the petition.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

We still have the little guest dog at our house. I was going to talk to her owners last night, but they hadn't gotten home by the time I called it a night (which was around 12:30 a.m.) Casey is going to try to catch them sometime today. She decided that she would overnight with us AKA we couldn't get her outta the house without a fight. She was as happy as a little lark, eating dogfood and chewing on the occassional Nylabone. The little stinker even chewed away on the corner of The Last Command. It wasn't too bad, but it still irks me. I haven't had anything like this happen, since Bear was a puppy. He read the middle of the 5th Harry Potter book with his teeth! It wasn't hard to break him from the habit with chews and other things that he COULD chew to his heart's desire. This little girl is well old enough to know better. Looks like I have work to do, if she's going to hang around with me. Maybe her family can convince her to go back home. It's still the strangest thing that I've ever seen.
I don't have any mind blowing plans for the weekend. The forcast is rainy, so I expect I'll be in the house most of the time. We might go rent a few movies to keep us busy. Casey has shelter duty tomorrow morning. I'll do my housecleaning tomorrow, since I have to take Mom for her doctor's checkup on Monday. She and I are planning to have a really nice lunch somewhere, but we haven't decided exactly where yet. We always have a good time on our doctor outings. It gets us out of town for a change of scenery. Other than that, my plans are wide open. Who knows what I'll get into. Everyone have a great weekend!

Friday, June 16, 2006

The strangest thing happened about two days ago. The neighbors that live behind us have this little dog. She looks like a little Sheltie mix, and she's Bear's size. They've had her ever since they moved in, which was about five years ago. We've always known her. She meets us in the back yard, when we let our dogs out. Whenever I would walk Bear in front of her house, she would finish walking the last block with us, and then cut through our back yard to go back home. She and Bear just love playing together outside. Anyway day before yesterday when Casey and I pulled into the driveway after work, she met us there. Not only did she meet us, but when I opened the door to get out, she jumped into the car with me. We finally got her out, and I didn't think anymore about it. Yesterday, it was the same scenario. She met us in the driveway and jumped into the car...but that wasn't all. When I opened the door to go inside, she just walked right in and made herself comfortable. She has very thick fur, so I knew she was hot. I let her stay inside and cool off until suppertime. Later I had gone to take a shower, and when I got done she was back inside!! Casey said she came in, when my friend Elaine stopped by. We let her stay inside until bedtime. She, Bear, and Fergie had the best time playing. This morning, she was at the backdoor waiting to come inside. She had a bite to eat and a drink of water. Again, she jumped into the car with us. For a minute, it looked like she was going to follow our car.
It's just the weirdest thing. She's known us for years. Why would she have such an interest in us so suddenly? Today as soon as the neighbors get in, I'm going to go down there and let them know that she's been hanging out at our house. I don't want anyone thinking that I'm trying to steal their dog or anything. When she comes into the house, she acts like she BELONGS there. The weirdest part is all of my dogs act the same way!! It's just like no big deal to them? I'm just left to think, "what do I do now?"

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Most everyone knows that dogs have been using their keen sense of smell to hunt down drugs, bombs, missing people, and now even cancer. But did you know that dogs are also being used to sniff out bedbugs in apartments and hotels and pirated DVDs and CDs? Now, many dogs have been put to work to sniff out these new items. Read all about it HERE.

I wondered how they were able to do this for a very long time. I somewhat finally understood the process, when I began working at Kindred Spirits last year. This is how it was explained to me. When a dog catches a scent or smells something specific, such as a drug or food, he doesn't smell the combination of ingredients or substances. A dog can smell each ingredient that makes up the whole. For example if you had a bowl of creamed corn, a dog could smell the corn, salt, pepper, butter, and any other ingredient individually.

Here is another interesting fact about how acute a dog's sense of smell really is:

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

This month has been so crazy I nearly forgot to remind everyone about this. June is Adopt a Shelter Cat Month. If you are looking for the furry, feline companion, please take a look at the animal shelter first. Shelters have cats of all kinds, just waiting for good homes. At this time of year, shelters are overcrowded with cats and kittens. If you adopt a shelter cat not only will you get a lifelong companion, but you help out the shelter and other cats as well. Take a look at the shelter stats below by the ASPCA.

Our grand cat of the house, Lucy, is 14 years old. She rules the kingdom from the top down, dogs included. I adopted her from my local shelter, when she was only 6 weeks old. She's been with me and Casey ever since. I wouldn't trade her for the world!

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Today has just been one of those run around everywhere days. Busy, busy, busy. I did find out some fantastic news. My humane association received a $1000 grant to use for our 2nd annual Celebration Pet Day. That means that we can do everything that we want to do, and we can do it nicely. The news came in this morning.
Last night, I had my planning committee's first meeting. The ideas and programming that everyone has lined up is fantastic. There's something for every pet lover. This year, we are also offering a lot of pet educational classes. I've even got a call in to a Red Cross representative about doing pet CPR certifications. This is all just the tip of the iceburg for us. I can't wait to see what all we put together. Gotta run...so busy today!! I'll fill everyone in tomorrow!

Saturday, June 10, 2006

After breakfast on Sunday morning, we headed out from Columbus to Cincinnati. We got to Melissa's around noon. It was so good to see her. The last time we got to visit was the end of last October, so it was a reunion of sorts for us. We sat around and just caught up for about an hour or so, before her sister, Sherry, arrived. After catching up with Sherry, we were headed out to see something of a religious monument. Melissa and Sherry just couldn't stop talking about it. It is a HUGE paper mache' Jesus that has been constructed by a local church there. It is so big, that it can be seen by traffic passing on the interstate. Melissa and Sherry said that it was such a sight to behold, that it was causing wrecks on the interestate and nearby streets. Of course, Casey and I just HAD to see it, so we were off. After about a 15 minute drive, it was finally revealed to us.

This thing is so big that in the picture you can see how it looms high above the roof of the church. There was a little amphitheatre in front of it, with a nice little pond and walking path in front of it. There were gardens, benches, and lots of ducks and geese there. Casey took lots of pictures as we were walking the path.

Sherry, me, and Melissa in front of the paper mache' Jesus.

After our visit with the paper mache' Jesus, we headed to Melissa's grandmother's house for a big family cookout. I finally got to meet the family that I'd heard so much about over the years. We met Melissa's grandmother, great grandmother and grandfather, her aunts, her mother and her fiance', and her uncle. They were all such warm, friendly, wonderful people. The food was fantastic, and the company was even better! When we finished eating, it was time for the great Cornhole tournament. Now before you all go off and make some terrible remarks, it's a bean bag game.

The object is to toss a bean bag (full of corn) into a hole in a slanted, wooden board. On the board is 1 point and through the hole is 3 points. I never got one through, but I always got close..."but no cigar". Casey, however, was quite good at it. Melissa and Sherry reigned as team champions. Late that afternoon, it was time to tell everyone goodbye and head back to Mel's place. On our way, Mel called one of her friends, Josie, to come by and join us. We spent the rest of the evening sitting out on Mel's patio talking, drinking wine, and eating chips and salsa. It was wonderful just to relax and visit. Josie is a great girl, and a whole lotta fun. Casey, who was surrounded by women, fit right in. We had some REALLY interesting conversations. Around 11:00, Sherry and Josie headed home, and me, Mel, and Casey went back inside. Mel had bought us a delectable treat, Graeter's Ice Cream! Folks, this is some of the BEST ice cream that I've ever had. Melissa introduced us to Greater's on our first visit, and we've been hooked ever since. After a HUGE bowl of mint chocolate chip and much satisfaction, I called it a night.
On Monday Mel had grad classes, but we had time for lunch. So, we went to another favorite place of ours, Skyline Chili. Here's a couple of shots Casey took, while we were there.

After a good meal and some very sad goodbyes we saw Melissa off to class, and we headed for home. All in all, it was such a WONDERFUL trip and a much needed break. I just can't wait to go again! Everyone have a good weekend!

Friday, June 09, 2006

We were later leaving out for Columbus than we had planned. Since the vet had kept Slate overnight we had to pick him up before we left. We got him back home and settled in with my Mom. We quickly loaded the car and were on our way. The weather for the drive up was just horrible. It poured rain all the way from Nashville to Louisville, KY. That made us run even later. As we got on the far side of Louisville the rain finally stopped, and the sun came out. It was nearly dinner time, so we stopped right outside of Columbus for a bite to eat. When we got into town we went straight over to COSI, and met up with our friends. It was great to see everyone in costume and trooping. We had friends with both the Rebel Legion and the 501st. One of our friends managed to get us in for a sneak peek at the exhibit, Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination. It was absolutely INCREDIBLE!! So many of the props that were used in the Star Wars movies were there and up close to look at. It was sensory overload. There were robots that you could build yourself, an actual landspeeder that you could ride in, a flight in a lifesize cockpit of the Millenium Falcon, and many other interactive things.
After a quick preliminary trip through the exhibit, Casey and I headed over to the hotel to unload the car and freshen ourselves up (By that time it was nearly 9 p.m.) After a little relaxation, it was time to head down and line up for the midnight opening of the exhibit. We walked the 5 blocks down from our hotel. Columbus is a lovely city, so it was a really nice walk. While we waited outside, we got to talk with several people and interact with the troopers. The people were finally let inside at timed intervals to mingle, eat, get an autograph from Jeremy Bulloch (the original Boba Fett), and go through the exhibit. The food was great, and the company and exhibit were even better! We finally got back to the hotel and fell into bed around 3 a.m.
On Saturday, we got up and headed out for a bite to eat. While we were out, we decided to explore the city a little bit. It was so clean and neat. We found a really great cigar shop there with an even bigger reputation called Pipes and Pleasures. Casey loves cigars and pipes, so he was in heaven. Later that afternoon, we headed back to the exhibit and went back through to get some pictures. Everyone was clearing out for the day, so it was a lot easier to get them taken. We then headed back for the hotel, stopping on the river bank to get a bite to eat and take in some of the Art Festival the city was holding. After a huge gyro, it was back to the room and into the pool. Saturday night was the 501st and Rebel Legion party. It was great to get to eat and visit with our friends. Since I had missed him at the exhibit, I had a chance to get an autograph and speak with Jeremy Bulloch. All in all, a fantastic weekend in Columbus. Here are some pictures from the exhibit.

A Clone Trooper outside entertaining the crowd.

More Clone Troopers inside.

Me with Anakin's and Obi Wan's costumes.

Tusken Raider costumes.

Model of Luke Skywalker on his Taun Taun used for The Empire Strikes Back...look at that detail!

Casey with a Destroyer Droid

To see all of the pictures from the COSI weekend, click HERE.
Tomorrow, the trip to Cincinnati...stay tuned.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Well, I was away a little longer than I expected. I had this post ready yesterday, but Blogger was down every time I tried to publish....
I hadn't meant to be away Thursday, but it just turned out that way. When I got home on Wednesday afternoon, I noticed that Slate was holding his cast up and refusing to walk on it. For the past month, he'd been running around as fast as he could go on it. I knew that something wasn't quite right. I noticed that he had pulled all of the padding away from the top of his cast, so I figured that it may be rubbing his leg. I looked and sure enough there was a little bald spot there with a little swelling. I gave him a pain pill at bedtime to help alleviate some of the discomfort, and I hoped that he would be better by morning. At 3 a.m. on Thursday morning, he woke me up whining. Now, Slate is NOT a complainer in any way. He is one tough little dog, so when he started whining, I KNEW something was wrong. Casey and I were due to leave first thing Friday morning for Ohio, so I decided right then and there to take off Thursday and take him to the vet. Casey took the day off to help.
We got him into the vet's early Thursday morning. The tech got him in there and began to cut the cast off. If a dog's face could ever have a human expression, Slate had one as the cast came off. He looked like, "oh, thank you so much!!" As soon as the cast came off, we knew the problem. The cast had doubled over underneath and had cut a large gash into his leg nearly to the bone. I just cried, when I saw it. It looked horrible, and I can't imagine how much it must have hurt him. The vet decided to keep him overnight and surgically repair the gash. They cleaned it up and stiched it. They also gave him IV antibiotics to help. Luckily, his broken bones had healed enough that they didn't have to re-cast his foot. So after another surgery, night away from home, and another $160, we were able to pick him up early on Friday morning.
The vet said that he should be fine, and that we should go ahead on our trip. I called in the best possible caregiver that I know...my mom. She took fantastic care of him, while we were gone. She gave him his meds and many, many treats. He is soooo spoiled. Luckily, the stitches are still holding (the vet was afraid that he was too inflamed and they might not). The swelling has gone, and he seems to feel much better. I just want to hurt whoever put that BB into his foot. NONE of this would have happened, if they hadn't shot him. I swear if I EVER catch who did it, they WILL pay.
The Ohio updates will begin soon!! Stay tuned!